Actress,
writer, TV presenter, producer and author
"I (Ruby Wax) couldn't stand being a nobody.
America put too much value on being tall and blonde.
So I used laughter to make people take notice."
Ruby always wanted to be famous, so decided to
become an actress. She didn't get in to RADA but
was awarded a place at the Scottish equivalent,
before later joining the Royal Shakespeare Company
alongside Helen Mirren, getting all the ‘wench’
parts.
"I really could never find my niche. I was
a terrible actress, I couldn't sing, I couldn't
do characters, I couldn't do an English accent
and I lived in England, so I was narrowing it
down'. She started off writing for Not the Nine
O Clock News. She met French and Saunders at a
party and worked alongside them a number of times,
on television in Happy Families, at charity events
such as Hysteria and notably the sitcom Girls
on Top. Apparently meant to be a kind of female
‘Young Ones’, French, Saunders and
Wax all co-starred and co wrote this ITV series.
Ruby played Shelley Dupont, a stereotypically
loud American dying for a career in showbusiness.
Not a huge hit, Girls on Top nevertheless gave
the trio the chance to find their feet in comedy
Ruby Wax eventually got a chat show after drunkenly
interviewing Michael Grade (who was head of Channel
4 at the time) in a tent at the Edinburgh festival.
She subsequently made a range of programmes.
In the 1988 show "Ruby's Celebrity Bash",
Ruby 'interviewed' stars including Joanna Lumley,
Patricia Hodge and Felicity Kendall. More staged
and rehearsed than Ruby’s more recent interviews,
they included acted bits and prepared one-liners
to the cameras. But although the interviews are
set up they are still hilarious. Ruby breaks into
Joanna Lumley's house - smashing windows and then
hiding behind her sofas! She gets thrown out but
returns later with a ladder and calls up into
the window, before climbing up and breaking in
again. Joanna Lumley's character is very much
a premonition of Patsy, who ends up in a mental
institution and has cupboards filled with alcohol!
The show was very much pre-Abfab, and an early
and unusual role for Joanna in comedy at the time.
Ruby Wax later became the script editor for Absolutely
Fabulous, coming up with many of the one-liners.
East Meets Wax (1989) an interesting documentary
following a pregnant Ruby as she tours Russia
doing comedy through a humourless translator.
We see their relationship develop in between clips
of the performances and Ruby chatting with the
Russian public. In 1992 Ruby did a stand-up comedy
show at the Wimbledon Theatre, now available on
video as Wax Acts. Written by Ruby Wax, it consists
of amusing monologue and observational comedy.
Her description of childbirth was almost enough
to put me off for life, pain-wise she says, 'it's
like sitting on the Eiffel tower and spinning'
- ouch indeed!
Ruby's Health Quest (1995) followed Ruby as she
went in search of alternative medicines, advice
and treatments in aid of seeking perfect health.
There is also an accompanying book.
Several years ago she took a BBC director's course,
"people will get sick of me and my ego will
have to be removed, but I'd still like to express
my view of the world".
As for the future, alongside her interviews, Ruby
has been writing a screenplay with Jennifer Saunders
to star one of her previous guests, Goldie Hawn.
Not much information has been revealed other than
it’s a kind of ‘spiritual quest’
and a ‘turning 50 thing’.
For Ruby Wax products and further information please visit:
Ruby Wax books and related products
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